Dean Richards was anxious to keep his Falcons grounded after they flew up to second place in the Premiership table.

They are on the same points as leaders Saracens but the director of rugby warned: ‘There is a very long, long road ahead. We’ve won three games out of four, which means little unless we keep it up for the next eight months.

‘We felt we had to prove a point after losing to Saracens in Philadelphia last weekend.’

Newcastle Falcons scored two tries in the last 13 minutes to win 33-32 at Bath on Saturday

Flanker Mark Wilson’s try three minutes from time left Joel Hodgson to convert and snatch a superb bonus-point win for Newcastle.

Falcons had been 19-0 up after 20 minutes following tries by Sonatane Takulua, Rob Vickers and DTH Van der Merwe.

But Bath battled back to lead 25-19 lead through scores from Matt Banahan, Semesa Rokoduguni, Charlie Ewels and Jonathan Joseph.

Newcastle rallied in the final 13 minutes with first Chris Harris and then Wilson going over.

Bath boss Todd Blackadder said: ‘To give up so many points in the opening 20 minutes was not good enough. We should have closed the game out at the end. It’s bitterly disappointing.’

His side have won three games out of four but Dean Richards insists there is a long way to go